Arduino Pong!

Hey Guys it's time to recreate the famous Pong Attari game using Arduino and some other components such as: Potentiometers, a couple of resistors , a button and a TV Out cable.All in 10 or less minutes! Let's get started

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for helping reach (a small but considerable) amount of 1000 views!

Step 1: What Will You Need

x1 Arduino Uno or same Arduino Compatible board

x1 USB cable to connect the board

x1 Breadboard to connect the components

x2 10k Ohm Potentiometer

x1 470 Ohm resistor

x1 1k Ohm resistor

x1 Pushbutton

x1 RCA cable (TV Out)

x2 Clips to connect the resistors with the cable (Alternativelly you can solder them)

Some wires

Step 2: The Wiring

You can easily connect the components according to the schematic .Something to notice is that the 1k ohm resistor goes to pin D09, while the 470 ohm resistor goes slot into pin D07. As you can see at the sketch there is a puprle cable splting at half.Don't connect this yet,exept the resistors to the correct pin according to the guide.In my real-life Arduino they are the yellow cables.I have this layout so it's more neat ,tidy and user friendly and each player can use his potentiometer with ease.

Step 3: The TV Cable

Using a sharp knife cut the cable.The RCA cable has 2 wires. One that is proected by a white "shell" and the other that covers the white ,protected by the black.You should try to cut throught them and form them like the right cable of the image.The left one is before cut and the right is after.The white one will be connected with the restors in the next step ,and the other goes to the ground

Step 4: Connect the Cable at the Circuit

Now connect the white cable with the 470 Ohm and the 1K Ohm resistors using the clip(I didn't want to solder them,but you can if you want).The other end of the RCA cable is to be connected with the ground of the breadboard.

Step 5: Almost There!The Completed Circuit

Before I give you the code there is something to be done.You have to download a special library so your Arduino can communicate with the TV.Let's go to the next step

Step 6: Download the Libraries

Go to https://code.google.com/p/arduino-tvout/downloads/list and select TVoutBeta1.zip

Step 7: Unzip the File

Unzip the file and select the extracted file

Step 8: Add Libraries to Arduino

Inside the extracted there are 3 files.Copy and paste them at the Arduino Libraries directory of your computer (/Documents/Arduino/libraries). Its the same if you are using a Linux OS

Step 9: The Code

You can download the code from : http://pastebin.com/Su0wdEKG

Copy and paste it at the Arduino IDE

Connect the Arduino board

Upload it!!!

Step 10: Ready to Roll

That's it folks.The Pong has uploaded to the board.Connect the cable to your TV and find a nearby power supply for the Arduino board. Get your Player 2 and enjoy the classic game you have just created

Thanks for your time ,hope you enjoyed as much as I did creating this Instructable.Don't forget to Like and Vote at the Tech contest

Comments

[electric_piano_5k]

Nice Instructable! I made this to bring back to life an old broken Coleco Telstar game (same as Pong). This made it easier because the potentiometers were already there and wired up, but I soldered everything because I wanted it to be permanent so that took longer.

[gregyoung232]

Great project! This is a fun idea with a couple of hangups that were confusing. In the diagram it looks like the two resistors are connected to the 5V rail, but they should not be. Just connect them to the two leads of the RCA cable. Also, not sure why those two resistors are different values, it works fine if they are both 1k. Also, I tried initially compiling this on my Linux system, but the Linux install I guess doesn't contain all of the libraries necessary for the code, yet this is not obvious in any way, as the code compiles and uploads fine, but produces no output when you hook it up. Thankfully, the code works fine on Windows systems. Just be aware if you primarily use Linux. Otherwise great project for Arduino beginners.

[floki16108]

Everything works great. Thanks! I want to add, as I understand it, the resistor connecting the start button with the D2 connector is 10KΩ. The speed of the ball is of course slow, I played this game on a Soviet console back in 1997. Please tell me which line of the sketch can be used to increase the speed of the ball?

The author of the sketch on his page at the end of the article says that the firmware code contains data for sound output, but as he explained, at the time of assembly he did not have an available connector, you can connect directly to the D11 connector and the sound will be heard.

I checked the author's recommendations, and it is, the sound comes out through the D11 connector, I connected it to a headphone, though headphones with a volume control are better, the sound is very loud.

[Matqux]

Hy! I made it but it isn't works!

The error code:

PONG.ino:11:21: fatal error: fontALL.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
Error compiling.

What's the matter?

[EvaggelosM]

There seems to be a problem with the libraries.Try to re-add them after deleting them from the folder(See steps 6-8)

[Matqux]

Thank you! I will try that!

[simaopintocorreia]

I have the same problem with the arduino IDE 1-8-5 , but in my case the problem is that I haven't image on screen ,so I try to run this on arduino IDE 1-6-4, and with this ,the library works well, try the same and install the TVoutBeta1.h on it and upload .
try and post the results.OK!

[rbusch]

i just got this wroking but im not terrible good at programming, what might i have to change to speed the ball up a tad?

[fizzy123]

did you fix it?

[rbusch]

i dont remember now. i have it running on a very small CRT monitor from an old camcorder. the screen is about the size of a quarter. so its hard enough to play as it is for my perposes, haha

[e18.kerekes.gergo]

How can I increase the speed of the ball?

[Jorge99M]

Hola, se que es publicacion vieja, funciona muy bien y todo pero quisiera saber como acelerar la velocidad de la bola sin que traspase las barras y aumentarle el tamaño a la bola y a las barras y que al finalizar el juego no se ponga la pantalla negra porque tengo que reiniciar el arduino para volver a jugar

[lazyguyperiod]

What is the schematic for this project?

[planetoid127]

Very nice instructable. I made it (will post that later) and it works great! Just a remark, next time, maby you want to show a full diagram of all the circuits instead of proceeding by steps (so that you can understand it easier).

[EvaggelosM]

Thank you ...Its the first image that shows the full circuit. But I had to make sure you would understand the TV Out Cable connection...

[NetoI]

é possivel ser só de um jogador ?

[DiscoCat]

This isn't working for me

[EvaggelosM]

could you be more specific about it?I would gladly help you if I had more info

[MichaelShort]

TOOK ME 42.24 MINUTES YOU LIER!11! HOPE YOU FEEL ASHAMED!!111!1

[EvaggelosM]

hahaha ...but did it work?